Jeff Gaynor’s Hip Resurfacing Mr. McMinn 2001

Just finished having my x-rays checked by McMinn (his Centre, actually, Chandra did the review and he was part of the team that did my surgery). I had the original operation on August 1, 2001. This makes me one of the longest-lived surface hippies. What was the result?

Excellent!

Implant is right where it should be, chromium levels are normal (and that’s with me taking a supplement). I’ve been training as hard as ever with powerlifting, martial arts even did a couple months of sprint training for the heck of it.

Thanks to everyone on the list (old guard) who helped me in my early days. Not sure how many of you there are.

Cheers,

Jeff G rBHR Aug. 1, 2001 Mr. McMinn

Eight Year Anniversary

I really don’t post much nor do I read the list much either. However, I was one of the earlier ones to get a resurfacing. It happened on Aug. 1, 2001, so I am now on my 8th year.

Generally surfacehippy caters to people who are contemplating surgery. Those of us who are well past it now don’t have a lot to offer, since our information is a bit too old. On top of that, it has gotten so loaded with trolls and flamers it’s just a chore to read it. Anyway….

Read up on my story here: http://www.jqhome.net/hip.

I also have a webpage with some of my conditioning on it: http://www.jqhome.net/taiso.

How is it working? Fine! Meaning that I can basically ignore it. That’s real progress! For those of you who don’t know, I am a very active athlete (martial arts, conditioning) and workout very hard every day of the week. I just got back from a weekend of training martial arts. No hip issues — the rest of me hurts, but that is just fine.

A few observations from someone who is further along the long haul:

* Be patient if you are within a couple of years post-op. Yes you want your life back now, but it will take some time.

* If you want to really get it right, walk barefoot on uneven ground (like a grassy field). This is the simplest way to fix a lot of gait/posture problems. You might want to get some ultra-thin shoes like these . Some people claim Masai footware does it which mimics walking on sand). These will help your toes grab a bit, bit still being a shoe your gait mechanics will not be affected nearly as much. This is not something to run off immediately post-op and do. Give it some time and when you feel pretty strong and want to take it to the next level, give it a try.

* Healthy people without hip surgery usually have lousy hamstring/glute activation.

* Healthy people after about middle-age have shortened psoas muscles (front of the hip) and have a hard time standing up straight. Between this and the first point, it means that your average person has poor hip mechanics and therefore poor posture.

* Knee, ankle and lower back pain are most likely caused by poor hip mechanics. (Sure, you can have disk issues or degnerative OA of the knees, but most people with pain have neither of these.) Generally if part of you is weak, the load gets transferred to the next joint up or down the kinetic chain. So a bad hip means you *will* get either back of knee pain.

* Fixing poor hip mechanics is hard. Running (treadmills in particular will actually screw up your mechanics, since the belt pulls your foot through on each step, allowing your entire posterior chain to shut off), weight machines (ok for rehabbing prime movers, but you can cheat massively and even I find getting halfway decent form difficult), biking (works quads pretty well, but not much glut work unless you get the toe clips and actually practice using the gluts at the bottom of the stroke) etc. will not do it. You need to move you in 3 dimensions. It is possible to fix it by swimming, and by swimming I mean actually doing the strokes with correct mechanics, not splashing around in the water. This has a really steep learning curve, taking a good 6 months before most people can really swim. It is well worth it. Free weights are a good bet, but it is rare to find anyone who can coach you adequately (FWIW most "trainers" in gyms do not know what they are doing and should be avoided). The only sure way is to get your legs doing what they do – move you over uneven ground. I suggest… walking barefoot.

Jeff G Aug. 1, 2001 Mr. McMinn

Seven year anniversaryAugust 01, 2008

Amazingly enough, seven years ago today I got surfed. That seems, well, unreal. So here is a quickie report on me:

I’ve had no issues with the hip after about the first year and a half. Up until then, it was, I now realize, pretty standard rehab. Yes it hurt at times, yes I was down in the mouth but post-op was so much better than pre-op it was worth it. Now post-post-op (??! what else to call it) is just as it should be.

Activities: I train about 2 hours a day, doing conditioning, swimming and running, then I do martial arts 3 or so times a week (2 hours a shot). I train hard and there are only a few things I do as an accommodation — mainly avoid certain funky leg techniques in martial arts. I also run on an elliptical trainer. This vastly lessens the impact on the hip and also knee (which is hinky and will probably be the next joint to get replaced at some point). My toy for myself this year has been a weight vest for training. In point of fact, I’m in simply fabulous condition (about 7% body fat, ripped as all get out, you know). Oh, the scar isn’t that noticeable unless I point it out to people. Folks are consistently amazed when I tell them I have an artificial joint and used to be a basket case.

So, I’m not the person to ask about failures. Indeed, mine’s been an outstanding success up to this point. No movement of the implant, bone density is up, ROM is good and strength is excellent.

My advice? If you need it and are a candidate, get it. A lot of the pain people have post-op comes from muscles and other soft tissue. Avoiding PT will just drag this out (again, assuming there is no other pathology involved).

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